Leatherbag: “Start All Over Again”
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A good pop song is an exceedingly tough thing to write, but for Leatherbag‘s Randy Reynolds, they tumble from his pen at an astonishing rate. After moving to Austin from Houston as a Hurricane Rita transplant, Reynolds made the most of his new surroundings. He started to record and play around town under the name Leatherbag, releasing a number of well-received EPs before recruiting a trio of musicians to round out his band. Last summer saw the release of Hey Day, a full-length debut that finds Reynolds at the top of his songwriting game.
And that’s not to mention his backing band. Leatherbag is a tight-knit group now, mixing Elvis Costello’s sharp jangle with some well-earned Texas bravado. You can also hear Big Star’s pop fingerprints all over the band’s melodic touches; Hey Day even boasts an ode to the late Alex Chilton in “Forever Blue.”
But the local group has built their reputation on their live shows, where the guitars blast out of the speakers, the rhythm section lays down a solid foundation, and Reynolds is given the room to shine as a magnetic frontman. Fittingly, Leatherbag recently released a new live album recorded at the Parish. Today’s song of the day is also a live one; here’s “Start All Over Again,” recorded in KUT’s Studio 1A.
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